Journal article
Rigorous policy measurement: causal inference challenges and opportunities
American journal of epidemiology, v 194(11)
06 Jan 2025
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Epidemiologists are increasingly asking questions about the effects of policies on health and health disparities, generally using quasi-experimental methods. Researchers have developed a burgeoning body of rigorous methodological work focused on addressing potential inference challenges arising from modeling choices, study design, data availability, and common sources of bias in policy evaluations using observational data. However, epidemiologists have paid less attention to the measurement and operationalization of policy exposures. The field of legal epidemiology offers rigorous, formalized methods to address challenges in measuring policy, yet disciplinary divides have impeded the communication of these approaches from lawyers to epidemiologists. In this article, we use terminology familiar to epidemiologists to describe the field of legal epidemiology and how challenges in measuring policy exposures can compromise causal inference, with a particular focus on addressing information bias and consistency assumptions. Laws and regulations can address or enforce structural inequities, and understanding challenges to their characterization and measurement can enhance epidemiologic research on their health and health equity effects.This article is part of a Special Collection on Methods in Social Epidemiology.
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Details
- Title
- Rigorous policy measurement: causal inference challenges and opportunities
- Creators
- Alina Schnake-Mahl - Drexel University, Health Management and PolicyAna V. Diez Roux - Drexel Dornsife Sch Publ Hlth, Urban Hlth Collaborat, Philadelphia, PA USAUsama Bilal - Drexel University, Epidemiology and BiostatisticsGabriel L. Schwartz - Drexel University, Health Management and PolicyScott Burris - Temple University
- Publication Details
- American journal of epidemiology, v 194(11)
- Publisher
- Oxford Univ Press
- Number of pages
- 7
- Grant note
- K01AI168579 / National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID) U54CA267735-03 / Drexel FIRST (Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation) Program, National Institutes of Health
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Urban Health Collaborative; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Health Management and Policy
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001566920700001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105022521914
- Other Identifier
- 991022011882804721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health